When Washington D.C. passed legalized recreational marijuana 2015, Congress shut that party down. Republicans made sure that it would still be illegal to sell or smoke marijuana outside of a private residence and banned residents from being able to generate revenue from taxing cannabis.

But stoners are savvy, and when it comes to weed, they will always find a way. Nicholas Cunningham found his way through a little gray area—the gifting economy. Though he was living in Los Angeles, he came up with an idea: he would exchange edibles and flowers for a donation out of a fleet of luxury cars. Cunningham wouldn’t be selling marijuana; he’d only be giving out “thank yous.” So he started his company, Kush Gods, and enacted his plan, and began pulling in some $1,000 to $5,000 a week. But when he gifted some pot to undercover officers, he was placed on two years probation and was then put in jail for 60 days in 2016 for breaking that probation. In that time, Kush Gods became a controversial subject in the marijuana community—was Cunningham giving cannabis entrepreneurs a bad name, or is he a genius you is getting a bad rap for taking advantage of a loophole? Well, other companies have tapped into this same gray area, like D.C.’s HighSpeed Delivery service.

MERRY JANE News caught up with Cunningham in D.C. to talk about how he got the idea for the company, his arrest, and how Kush Gods is adapting to stay out of the law’s sights.